Friday, October 17, 2008

Bologna with a splash of bidet

So I get a rental car to drive to my destination from the Bologna airport a few days ago. Upon return I decide it a good idea to refill the tank - but it's 2100 and the stations are closed, so I drive up to the next one I see, see something that looks like it could be a sign for 24 hour self-service operation, and proceed to attempt at inserting my credit card into any number of cracks and grooves in the side of the gas pump - to no avail. Hmm. Oh well, I go to the next one - voila! It looks like my Master Charge is not accepted, but the old tried and true cash money is (several stories about how credit card machines seem to be "broken" when traveling in Italy), so I go and get some cash money, put a 50 euro note into the central machine(smallest I note on hand), more problems trying to figure out that my car is not a diesel (I could have sworn it was), and find the pump stops filling at 37 euros - OK, I'll go get my change - nope, this thing ain't setup for giving change. No problemo, I guess I'm expensing that loss... Seriously, it took me 30-minutes to fill the tank of the Ford Fiesta before I could return it. Oh, and there aren't AM stations on the dial over here for shit - static and squealching, nothing else.

In other news, I met a couple from Ukraine this afternoon while at work - very nice, although none of us shared a common language - but I could tell they were good people, and I could tell they thought the same of me.

In other other news, I ate at a restaurant last night where they had on display 4 wine bottles above the bar - one named after Mussolini, one with Hitler(no shit), one with the Pope(JP2), and one with somebody else I can't remember. Great pasta, but I hadn't noticed the bottles until on the way out. Fascists.